Real Estate

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.01.15

* And the law school deans rejoiced! Enrollment is scraping the bottom of the barrel, but applications are only down by 2.9 percent so far this year. If you cross your eyes and squint, you may be able to see some signs of stabilization for the legal academy. [DealBook / New York Times] * Indiana has more than one controversial law on the books. Say hello to Purvi Patel, the first woman in the country to be charged, convicted, and sentenced on a feticide charge. Critics say this conviction will have a negative effect on women. [WNCN] * When the going gets tough in Biglaw, the tough get going -- on either laying off their employees or cutting their real estate losses. Per Colliers International’s Law Firm Services Group, firms have recently reduced their office space by 15 to 32 percent. [Am Law Daily] * "We cannot underestimate the seriousness of this incident." Terrible news: Yesterday, members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front took Turkish prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in an Instanbul courthouse and later killed him. [Reuters] * Which state is the worst in the country for job-seeking law school graduates? That would be Mississippi, where it's harder to get a job as an attorney than it is to spell the name of the state while intoxicated. There are 10.53 lawyers for every legal job opening. [WDAM]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.28.15

* There's nothing like boner talk in federal court: Juan Monteverde of Faruqi & Faruqi reaffirmed his claim that he was too drunk to get it up "consummate the act" during the time Alexandra Marchuk alleged he forced sex upon her. [Law 360] * "There's something deeply ironic about a judge seeking the right to ignore another judge's ruling while crying 'judicial activism.'" Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court wants judges to ignore a federal ruling on his state's unconstitutional ban on gay marriage. [Reuters] * Just days after the legal news media found out that Dentons would be tying the knot with Dacheng, the deal has officially been sealed. Talk about a shotgun wedding! Best wishes go out to 大成 Dentons for a happy, international marriage. [Am Law Daily] * Elite litigation boutique Susman Godfrey will be consolidating its Dallas and Houston offices into one mega-office in 2016 after the firm's lease in Dallas is up. Will all of the displaced attorneys remain with the firm? [Houston Business Journal] * Can we talk... about wrongful death cases? A lawsuit has finally been filed against the outpatient endoscopy facility and physicians involved in the death of Joan Rivers, and details have been released as to the way the beloved comedian died. [CNN]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.24.14

* The Thomas M. Cooley Law School is planning to sell one of its academic buildings for an asking price of $8.15 million. Dear Lord, the school will lose some of its library square footage. NOOOOOOOOO! [Lansing State Journal] * Contrary to his client's hit anthem, Pharrell's lawyer isn't happy. He says YouTube has been "blithely" ignoring his requests to take down music for which it lacks performance rights, and it may result in a $1B lawsuit. [Hollywood Reporter] * Clifford Sloan, the State Department's special envoy on Guantánamo Bay, appointed in 2013 to help shut down the detention center, is returning to the loving arms of Skadden's partnership on January 1, 2015. Gitmo is still open. Oops. [Am Law Daily] * After 30 years, the Food and Drug Administration decided to lift its lifetime ban on blood donation for gay men. Now gay men just have to abstain from doing gay things for a year -- like having sex with other men -- to donate blood. Yay? [WSJ Law Blog] * If you've been wondering what the most ridiculous lawsuits of 2014 are, we've got you covered. These are the top 10 most absurd cases filed over the course of the past year. You may remember some of these from our coverage. [Faces of Lawsuit Abuse]

By Staci Zaretsky
Barack Obama

Morning Docket: 10.21.14

* When asked what his favorite SCOTUS decision was during his POTUS tenure, Obama said it was the high court’s cert denials on the gay marriage cases. Well played, sir. [Wall Street Journal] * “Leverage has started to shift away from law firms.” Despite the fact that their headcounts are rising, Biglaw firms are downsizing office space as rents keep climbing higher. [Am Law Daily] * Schools are trying to slap lipstick on the pig that legal education has become amid an “anemic job market.” We bet your law school has some shiny new innovations too. [News Observer] * Citing the fact that “the courts do not exist to win popularity contests,” a judge sentenced Oscar Pistorius to five years in prison. Serious question: Will he be allowed to bring his prosthetic legs? [New York Times] * Nancy Grace and her friends have pitchforks at the ready because Jodi Arias’s penalty phase retrial begins today, and another jury will decide if she deserves to die for murdering her boyfriend. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky